LARES: A JOURNAL IN THE HISTORY OF ITALIAN ANTHROPOLOGY (1912-)

"Lares" is the oldest, still-running anthropological journal in Italy. It was founded in 1912 and has been published with only two hiatuses to date, during the World Wars. Summarising its history therefore entails a retracing of critical stages in Italian demo-ethno-anthropological disciplines, particularly around studies of folklore and popular traditions; these have been, until recently, the main focus of the journal. In this essay, I will try to tell the story of "Lares" by dividing it into five phases. Each reflects, to some extent, the personality and intellectual orientation of the scholars who have in turn fulfilled the editor's role: 1) the positivist and pre-Great War period of the journal's foundation (1912-1914); the fascist period (1930-1943); the post-Second World War or 'folkloric' period (1948-1973); the 'pdemological' period (1974-2003); the anthropological and cultural heritage period (recent years).